1. Technical Field
The technical field relates to a printing apparatus, more particularly to a three-dimensional printing apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, with the increasing development of technology, many different methods using additive manufacturing technology such as layer by layer model building have been proposed to build physical three-dimensional (3D) models. In general, additive manufacturing technology converts a design information of a 3D model built by a software such as computer aided design (CAD) into a plurality of thin (quasi-two-dimensional) cross-sectional layers stacked continuously. At the same time, many technical means capable of forming a plurality of thin cross-sectional layers have also been gradually proposed. For instance, the printing module of a printing apparatus can generally move above the substrate along an XY-plane according to the spatial coordinates XYZ built by the design information of the 3D model, such that the building material can form a correct cross-sectional layer shape. Therefore, since the printing module moves layer by layer along an axis Z, a plurality of cross-sectional layers can be stacked layer by layer along the axis Z. As a result, the building material can form a three-dimensional object when being cured layer by layer.
Using the technique in which a three-dimensional object is formed through a photocurable building material as an example, the printing module is adapted to be immersed in a liquid forming material filled in a tank, and a light source module projects light on the liquid forming material used as the building material on the XY-plane. As a result, the liquid forming material is cured and stacked on a movable platform of the printing module. Therefore, since the movable platform of the printing module moves layer by layer along the axis Z, the liquid forming material can be cured layer by layer and stacked into a three-dimensional object. When the three-dimensional object is formed by stacking layer by layer, the three-dimensional object already formed may become damaged or broken from being in contact with the bottom portion of the tank or due to incomplete separation with the tank. Therefore, how to improve the speed and quality of three-dimensional printing is still a major issue for developers in the art.